Avant Music News

A few quick notes.
I tried to upgrade AMN to the latest version of the blog software. It failed and I’m fairly convinced that it is due to a bug in said software because I followed the procedure properly and have upgraded several other blogs successfully. So I had to restore the […]

From AAJ:

31-Dec-07 Steve Lehman Quintet
On Meaning (Pi Recordings)
Reviewed by Troy Collins
31-Dec-07 Emre Kartari Quartet
Origin (Rec Jazz)
Reviewed by John Kelman
30-Dec-07 Bennie Maupin
The Jewel In The Lotus (ECM Records)
Reviewed by Budd Kopman

From DOWNTOWNMUSIC.NET:

December 29, 2007
John Zorn Improv, The Stone
Sylvie Courvoisier, Amir ElSaffar, Mark Feldman, Grey Gersten, Yoon Jeong Heo, Chikako Iwahori, Vijay Iyer, Ikue Mori, Matana Roberts, Ned Rothenberg, Ches Smith, Tyshawn Sorey, Jim Staley, John Zorn

Rotary Totem has released DVDs of two of my favorite groups of the 80s/90s, U Totem and Motor Totemist Guild. Videos on Youtube as well.

Rotary Totem now has a channel on YouTube - Vintage concert footage of U Totem from 1990 and Motor Totemist Guild from 1988, plus some new compositions and video collages. […]

We don’t take “best of” lists all that seriously, but they do serve as a great way of providing a long list of albums that are worth checking out. Without further ado, here is our best of…with a few disappointments of 2007 at the end.
The very best:

Battles - Mirrored
Blackshaw, James - The […]

From Chicago’s Umbrella Music:

Sunday, 30 December 2007
The Hungry Brain
10:00PM | Frazier/Wallace Duo
Colter Frazier - reeds
Rob Wallace - drums
11:00PM | Slow Cycle
Jason Stein - bass clarinet
Josh Berman - cornet
Nate McBride - bass
Frank Rosaly - drums
Thursday, 3 January 2008
Elastic
10:00PM | Colter Frazier/Rob Wallace Duo
Colter Frazier - tenor saxophone
Rob Wallace - drums
11:00PM | Herculaneum
Patrick Newberry - trumpet
Nick Broste […]

From DMG:

2007 comes to a close with some fine discs from: Leo Records: Anthony Braxton Ninetet at Yoshi’s Vol 4, Achim Kaufmann/Frank Gratkowski/Wilbert de Joode, Sainko Namchylak & Jarrod Cagwin, Szilard Mezei Quintet and Tim Trevor-Briscoe & Nicola Guazzoca, William Parker Bass Qt w/ Charles Gayle
Henry Kaiser & Kiku Day, Cuong Vu’s VuTet w/ Chris […]

From Musique Machine:

Blaketship & The Dollson Family Singers - Music with A Message
The rather wonderful & cool Gigante Sound label brings us another charming, whacky and memorable shot of junk shop record sampling, meets eclectronica meets what every they fancy with Music with a message.
Servile Sect - Stratospheric passenger
Stratospheric passenger blasts the listener […]

From Free Jazz:

Top 10 Free Jazz Albums of 2007
Tony Malaby - Tamarindo
Top-10 World Jazz albums of 2007
Stephen Gauci Trio - Substratum

From the Bohemian National Home:

Saturday, Dec. 29: Awesome Color, Human Eye
Awesome Color returns for a hometown show at the end of more than a dozen shows with Dinosaur Jr. It’s fitting we’ve lost them to Brooklyn; these guys epitomize the collision of The Stooges’ Detroit-style rock and New York guitar experimentation. Detroit’s Human Eye has […]

The Denison / Kimball Trio “Terminal 2″ (mp3) from “Soul Machine” (Skin Graft Records) Buy at eMusic More On This Album

Bob Drake’s latest group will play the Mercury Cafe in Denver on January 19th.

Troy Collins from AAJ gives a nice long best of 2007 list, which is could serve as a shopping guide for 2008.

Live music of note happening this week in New York.

TREVOR DUNN’S PROOF READERS (Wednesday) Trevor Dunn, a bassist with a strong foothold in underground rock, leads an investigation of the music of the free-jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman, with help from the trumpeter Nate Wooley, the alto saxophonist Darius Jones and the drummer Ryan Sawyer. At […]

From Free Jazz:

Saco Yasuma - Another Rain
Steve Swell - Swimming In A Galaxy Of Goodwill And…
I Heart Lung - I Heart Christmas
Trumpet Piano Duo
Evan Parker & Ned Rothenberg - Live At Roulette